Don't Mention It, Literally
by Miccacode
Summary: Fred was very good at keeping details about his personal life secret. Like the fact that he lived in a mansion, or that his dad was a superhero… or that he had a girlfriend. This wasn't because he didn't want his friends to know, it just usually slipped his mind to actually tell them.


The first glimpse one of them had gotten of the girl was when Gogo had left her bike at Fred's house one night. They had been there all day updating their tech, and by the time they left, it was late enough that Wasabi offered her and Honey a lift home, rather than them travelling through the city alone. So, the next morning Gogo had text Fred saying she'd be over later to pick her bike up, and he'd replied saying he'd locked it up in the garage, so all she needed to go was knock and he'd get it out for her.

So that's what she did. She arrived at his door early afternoon, and rang the doorbell. Heathcliff opened the door and, snapping her gum, Gogo had said, "Is Fred here?"

"Yes, I believe he's in the kitchen," Heathcliff said, beckoning for her to come in. he led her through the house and up a flight of stairs. As they approached the kitchen, two voices muffled voices flowed down the hall toward them. One of them was unmistakable Fred's excited tone, but the other was a girl's voice, soft and slightly raspy, as if she was just recovering from a violent cough.

When they reached the kitchen, Heathcliff knocked on the door and opened it. "Master Fred, Miss Gogo is here for you," he said. Over Heathcliff's arm, Gogo caught a glimpse of a table stacked with books and paper, and a mop of ratty, badly dyed blonde hair with brown roots, but Fred jumped up in front of the bird's nest of hair before she could see anymore.

"Awesome, I'll go get your bike," then, quieter, "I'll be back in a sec."

"Cool, I'll raid your cupboards," the raspy female voice said.

Fred led Gogo back through the house, while Heathcliff went off somewhere else. "Who're you with, Freddie?" Gogo asked, with a pop of her gum. Fred stopped mid-whatever he was saying.

"Huh? Oh, Cilla; we're going through our notes for the exam next week." He replied, as they reached the garage. He punched the button, and the front lifted up. Her bike was propped against the wall. Gogo furrowed her eyebrows.

"Exam?" she asked, pulling her bike towards her and picking up her helmet.

"Yeah," Fred nodded, "Y'know he English one."

"Right yeah," Gogo replied, suddenly remembering, "Well, good luck with that." Fred thanked her and waved her off lazily as she drove away, before sticking his hands in his pockets and spinning back towards the house.

* * *

"Y'know, sometimes I forget Fred is going a degree," Gogo announced as she entered the lab later, "I just went to pick up my bike and he was studying with some girl."

"Degree?" Wasabi asked, flicking up his goggles, "Oh, yeah Literature, right?" Gogo nodded, making her way over to her work station.

"Wait, did you say he was with a girl?" Honey asked, bouncing over to Gogo. Her hair, in a high pony tail, swished from side to side behind her. Gogo nodded, and Honey looked thoughtful, causing Gogo to snort. "She's probably just on his course, Honey, I wouldn't think much of it." Honey shrugged, wandering back to her own work station.

* * *

The second time wasn't so much a glimpse, as an overhearing. Fred hadn't been to the lab for three days, and, while the quiet and calm was nice for a while, it began to feel odd and empty without him bouncing around in his mascot costume.

"Has anyone heard from Fred?" Honey asked on the morning of the third day, her tone laced with worry. Everyone shook their heads, except Hiro, who had just walked into the lab, carrying a large crate of scrap metal and tools.

"Fred?" he asked, "Yeah just saw him outside; he's on the phone."

Everyone looked at each other, surprised. Honey sighed, slipping off her goggles and gloves. "I'll go find him."

Outside, she saw Fred sat on a wall, his feet kicking against the bricks. His phone was in his hand, held in front of his face like a walkie-talkie, and he was talking into it. As she approached, Honey heard a raspy female voice coming out of the speaker.

"You did fine, I'm sure," Fred said into the phone, "You talked about loads more things than me, I completely forgot about the sublime and the picturesque!"

" _Yeah, I know I talked about lots of stuff, but what if I didn't talk about them in detail enough?_ " the female voice asked, " _Ugh I was literally begging for Ulysses to not come up and what came up? Freaking Ulysses!_ "

"I know I had to stop myself from throwing the paper out the window," Fred grinned, and the voice on the other end laughed. Looking up, Fred saw Honey approaching and waved at her, "I gotta go. Duty calls."

" _You mean you're weird fish costume calls,_ " the voice said, and Honey could hear the smile in her voice. Fred looked mildly offended.

"Hey! You love my fish costume!"

" _Yeah yeah, I'll see you later. We can start on Elliot or something._ "

"Ew."

" _Tell me about it. Bye!_ " Fred bid the voice goodbye and hung up, jumping off the wall.

"Yo, Honey Lemon!" He said, walking up to meet her. Honey cocked her head to the side.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked, as Fred slipped his phone into his pocket and adjusted his beanie.

"Cilla," he said, "She's freaking out about the exam we had yesterday, but I keep telling her she did fine. I'm sure she did better than me and _I_ did fantastic."

He wandered ahead of Honey, not realising she'd slowed down. "Who's Cilla?" she asked, but he didn't hear her. By the time they'd gotten to the lab, Fred was hard to pin down to question, and by the time the day was over, Honey had forgotten about the question.

* * *

The third time they heard of the mysterious 'Cilla', Fred was pulling stupid faces every ten minutes, holding his phone in front of his face.

"What _are_ you doing?" Gogo asked, passing him as he stuck his tongue out and crossed his eyes. Fred jumped, not noticing her passing.

"Snapchat," he said, showing her his phone. As she was looking at it, the name _Cilla_ reloaded, showing a new snapchat from her. Gogo raised her eyebrows, and walked away.

A little while later, after Fred had made three more faces, Wasabi passed behind Fred, and saw him opening a snapchat. The screen showed a mass of ratty blonde hair with brown roots, a pale freckled face, and a hand covering the eyes in exasperation. All the fingers of the hand were set with multiple rings of different colours and patterns, including one with a huge ladybug, and one with the batman sign. The caption of the picture read _Really? -_- go back to the fish!_

Catching Honey's eye from across the room, Wasabi lifted an eyebrow and shrugged, walking back to his station.

* * *

They finally met her when Fred double booked himself. Hiro, Wasabi, Honey, Gogo and Baymax arrived at Fred's house with the intention of fixing up and repairing their gear and armour after a particularly vigorous weekend of protecting San Fransokyo from criminals.

Heathcliff let them in, accepted a fist bump from Baymax, and informed them that Fred was still asleep. Gogo rolled her eyes, muttering "of course he is. Don't worry, we can wake him up."

"Of course," Heathcliff said, bowed his head, and then left.

On their way to Fred's room, they passed the kitchen. Paper and pens were littered around the table and floor, as well as a stack of books in the centre of the table. One book, titled _Poetry Of The 1930s_ was laying open, cover to the ceiling, on the floor. There were also bowls and plates scattered around the table and side, some still half full with sweets, Doritos, and a couple slices of pizza.

When they got to his room, they didn't even knock. Gogo pushed the door open, and, bursting into the room, said in a loud voice, "Wake up, Freddie we've got stuff to do-… ooooh…"

She trailed off when Fred jumped, yelling at the shock, shirtless and accidentally smacking himself in the face. That, however, wasn't what caused the shock; they'd woken him up a few times before. The shock was the girl who was curled up next to him. Her pale grey eyes opened at the sudden intrusion, and her thin eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Everyone stared agape at them. The girl was the same one Gogo had seen in the kitchen a few weeks previously, and the same one Wasabi had seen snapchatting Fred, and, presumably, the same one Honey had heard on the phone. Her hair was a tangled mess of blonde hair dye and brown roots. Her skin was pale, almost pallid, with freckles thrown over her face and blotchy red cheeks.

"What are you doing here?" Fred asked, snapping everyone out of their shock. He didn't look irritated, just confused. The girl yawned, and pulled the cover over her face as Baymax began to answer.

"We are here to-"

"Hang out," Hiro cut him off frantically, not knowing how much the girl knew, "We said we were gonna hang out today?"

Fred stared at them sleepily for a moment, before saying, "Oh yeah… gimme a second and I'll get dressed."  
"Please do," Gogo stated dryly. They left the room and closed the door, making their way back to the kitchen.

"They were both sleeping in the same bed, right?" Wasabi asked, as they entered the kitchen.

"Yes, Wasabi," Gogo replied, "That is a thing some people do."

"I know what people do," Wasabi snapped at her, "I was just making sure everyone else saw what I saw!"

"We all saw it," Honey replied.

It was then that Fred and the girl entered the kitchen. Fred had thrown on a t-shirt and a pair of ripped jeans that probably weren't actually ripped when he bought them. The girl was in a pair of bright pink and green shorts, and a ratty jumper with various superheroes splattered on the front. A jumper which everyone recognised as the one Fred had worn three times the previous week.

"Not to be rude or anything," Gogo said, looking at the girl, "But who are you?"

"Oh yeah you guys haven't actually ever met!" Fred exclaimed, and the girl looked at him with a small smile, "This is Cilla!" he gestured to her grandly with his hands, leaning back slightly. Cilla snorted and shook her head. Honey became greatly interested in how her hair didn't seem to move at all, stuck in a bird's nest around her head.

"Hi, it's nice to finally meet you all," the girl said in her raspy voice, holding up a small hand.

"Again not to be rude," Gogo snapped her gum, "But that still doesn't really answer the question."

"Uh…" Fred dropped his hands, looking at them confused, "Cilla? Cilla Beck?" everyone shook their head, "…my girlfriend?"

There was a heavy moment of silence, in which Cilla shuffled slightly uncomfortably, pulling the sleeves of Fred's jumper over her hands. Finally, Hiro burst out with, " _You have a girlfriend_?!"

"Uh… yes?" Fred answered. Cilla looked to the ground, then at the ceiling, rolled her eyes, and looked at Fred.

"You didn't tell 'em about me, did you?" she asked, looking unimpressed.

"Yes!" Fred replied, slightly desperately.

"No," everyone else said, dully.

"Are you sure?" Fred asked them.

"Yes." Everyone else replied. Cilla sighed, placing a hand over her eyes and rubbing her forehead.

"I mean, he's mentioned a girl called Cilla a few times," Honey said, trying to mend some damage, "But only when we asked. We just assumed you two were on the same course."

Cilla shot Fred another unimpressed look, "We are," she answered, "its how we met. Two years ago."

"We've been together a year and a half how did I not tell you about her?" again, Fred gestured grandly to her, and Cilla snorted at him, sending him a lopsided smile.

"I dunno, we knew you for three years before you told us you lived in a mansion," Gogo deadpanned. Fred dropped his arms again and Cilla let out a bark of laughter.

"Well then… guys… I have a girlfriend. And her name is Cilla. And this is she." Again, another grand arm gesture. Cilla laughed loudly, and grinned widely. Fred smiled at her, slightly dazed, and everyone else looked at each other, unsure of how to react.

* * *

 **Just an idea that came to me a while ago and I finally gave in a wrote it. I might do a second part where Cilla finds out about the Big Hero 6's crimefighting antics and everything. Maybe. If you guys want me to. The fact that Fred does an English Literature course comes from the Essential Guide, and** **Fred and Cilla's course was largely based on my own, including the books studied and the exams. It'd be great to hear what you guys thought of this, so me a comment in the box :D**


End file.
